SOURCE: GNA
The Tema Metropolitan Office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has embarked on the celebration of this year’s Citizenship Week with a call on the youth to study Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
Ms. Gifty Agyeiwaa Badu, the Acting Tema Metropolitan Director of the NCCE, leading civic educators to sensitize basic school pupils in the Metropolis said studying the Constitution was one sure way of knowing rights and responsibilities.
Ms. Badu in an interactive session with pupils of Tema Community Eight Number One Primary and Junior High School indicated that by knowing their rights and responsibilities, they could be in a better position to defend and protect the Constitution.
She said they had a duty to understand the provisions of the Constitution and apply them to their lives.
She added that there was the need to imbibe in the children’s values such as patriotism, nationhood, unity, national cohesion, loyalty to the state, and hard work as these contributed to national development and democratic governance.
Speaking on this year’s theme: “Sustaining Ghana’s Democracy, Ghanaian Value in Practice: The Role of a Child,” she urged the students to defend and protect their country, She said it was enshrined in the Constitution that Ghanaians including children had a collective commitment to uphold and defend it against interference and interruptions and particularly study the Constitution as they must understand the provisions and apply it.
Giving a brief history of the Citizenship Week celebration, she said it was one of the flagship programmes initiated by the NCCE and celebrated annually to educate the youth on the need to uphold the provisions of the 1992 Constitution through interactive sessions and the use of positive role models in the society.
Ms. Badu said ”during the week-long celebrations, basic school pupils were reminded of the need for nationalism and patriotism”.
She explained that nationalism was the collective sense of Ghanaians as one people, despite their different ethnic and tribal origins, as well as their varied religious backgrounds and political affiliations, while patriotism had to do with the love one had for his or her country.
She identified other Ghanaian values that must be imparted into children as challenging work and a strong self-help spirit at home, community, and school, sincerity, justice, and fairness as well as respect for the elderly.
She urged Ghanaians ”to respect national symbols and institutions such as the Flag of Ghana, the National Anthem, the National Pledge, the national currency, and the seat of Government, among others”.
She called for honesty and integrity with peers, parents, friends, and the elderly while having decency and decorum in language, and discipline in private and public life.
